“Health Minister Pete Hodgson has ordered a series of
audits into Focus 2000, but reports of major problems within
the wider disability providers sector have come to light,”
says Dr Hutchison.

Lorna Sullivan of the Disabled Persons
Assembly has said ‘we’ve got a deep systemic problem – very
vulnerable people are living in the most compromised of
circumstances in this country and have nobody to speak for
them’.

“Although there is agreement about the aims of
the New Zealand Disability Strategy, there are serious
concerns about people with disabilities not achieving
optimal quality of life,” says Dr Hutchison.

“Many in the
sector are saying that since deinstitutionalisation a
culture of mini institutionalisation has developed. It is
alleged that throughout New Zealand, people with
disabilities are not receiving individualised care that will
allow them to lead an ordinary life.

“Another concern is
the Ministry of Health’s auditing methodology. Neither the
Health Minister nor the Disability Issues Minister is
acknowedging these problems.

“I am hoping to receive
support from other political parties to improve service
provision for people with disabilities,” says Dr Hutchison.

Suggested terms of reference for the inquiry have been
developed with help from experts within the disability
services
community.

It is (almost) possible to feel a bit sorry for the DHB negotiators engaged in the current nurses pay round. Come next Monday there’s every sign that nurses will resoundingly reject the pay offer the DHBs have put on the table, as being totally inadequate (a) as fair compensation for the crucial work that nurses do and (b) as a recruitment incentive for a workforce which is already under severe stress, and facing a demographic explosion in patients as the baby boomers lurch into old age. More>>

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The Treasury has revised the child-poverty projections it provided to the Government in December 2017. As outlined in the Treasury’s 17 January media release, the previous estimate was based on code that included a modelling error...More>>

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Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says the New Zealand Government has grave concerns over the use of a chemical nerve agent in the United Kingdom resulting in critically serious injuries to some of those exposed. More>>

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The Independent Police Conduct Authority has found that Police were not justified in stopping vehicles at a vehicle checkpoint to identify individuals who had attended an “Exit International” meeting in Lower Hutt on 2 October 2016. More>>

When the book Hit and Run was published in March last year, the Chief of Defence Force Tim Keating held a press conference claiming the SAS had been in a different place on that date... The Defence Force has finally admitted that the “three photographs in the book are of Tirgiran Village”. More>>